midwife

American  

[mid-wahyf] / ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

• midwives
  plural

1. a person trained to assist women in childbirth.

2. a person or thing that produces or aids in producing something new or different.

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verb (used with object)

midwifed, midwived, midwifing, midwiving

1. to assist in the birth of (a baby).

2. to produce or aid in producing (something new).

   to midwife a new generation of computers.

midwife British  

/ ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

1. a person qualified to deliver babies and to care for women before, during, and after childbirth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• midwives
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of midwife

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English midwif, from mid “with, accompanying” ( Old English; see also meta-) + wif “woman” ( Old English wīf; see wife)

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Explanation

A midwife is someone whose job involves helping women give birth to babies. Some pregnant women get their prenatal care from a midwife, as well as delivering their babies with a midwife's help. There are different categories of midwives — lay midwives attend home births, and nurse midwives also assist birthing women at hospitals and birth centers. In either case, a midwife is trained to understand the process of birth and techniques to make it easier and safe for mothers and newborn babies. Midwife literally means "woman who is with," or "woman assisting," from the Middle English mid, "with," and wif, "woman."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

midwife midwives midwifed midwifing midwived

"Recently, the pollution in Dili has been very severe," 30-year-old midwife Sonya da Costa Soares told AFP.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

The project's dedicated midwife, Adele Martin - having built up trust with pregnant mothers - is the one who has to step in.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Woodley’s work was informed by a cousin who’s a midwife, friends who are parents and a few births she’s attended.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Reducing bank shift wages caused more than financial issues, the midwife added.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

And she temporarily forgave the midwife her sharpness for the magic of her spells and the miracle of her skills.

From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman

"We've got bereavement midwives working across Wales but often there is only one per health board," said Julie Richards, director of the Royal College of Midwives Cymru.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

Basildon Hospital in Essex settled claims from 121 staff, including 85 midwives, who took legal action after reporting fatigue, anxiety, headaches and "brain fog" after the gas levels breached safety limits.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

The Lib Dems are calling for a consultant obstetrician to be present on every labour ward at all hours, one-to-one midwifery care for every woman in labour, and recruit an extra 300 consultant midwives.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

She was immediately referred to the specialist FGM Clinic, run by midwives at Birmingham Women's Hospital.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

And that the midwives of that pact were, or would be, her sawdust-coated two-egg twins.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

The actually existing Mets were also midwifed by Gotham honchos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

"It's not going to stop with Black studies, it will continue to all the other subjects and knowledges that are midwifed and have been midwifed by Black studies."

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2023

The new country was cheered on in 2011 by the American diplomats who had midwifed its delivery and the Hollywood celebrities who championed its cause.

From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2023

The sense of shared national endeavor that midwifed the Writers Project feels like a relic from another millennium.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2020

That winter, she midwifed two babies that I remember.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

“There is lots to be proud of, including midwifing ten new plays by women playwrights from Los Angeles, into the American theatre through our Writers Workshop,” he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022

And James will ironically be in the position of midwifing the next phase of America’s gun movement.

From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2020

However, Campbell is also sharply scrutinized for his role in midwifing and unleashing Dianetics.

From Nature ● Oct. 9, 2018

Along with the classic documentary “Style Wars,” which Chalfant co-produced, “Subway Art” helped disseminate graffiti culture worldwide, midwifing local communities and cementing the style, slang, technique and mores of the New York scene.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2016

Mother charged about five hundred dollars for a delivery, and this was another way midwifing changed her: suddenly she had money.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Langhorne was midwived in a Bethesda hospital, the middle of three sons to a father who ran a concrete company.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2015

I pretend neither to the spirit of prophecy, nor to any uncommon skill in predicting a crisis; much less to tell when it begins to be nascent, or is fairly midwived into the world.

From James Otis, the pre-revolutionist by John Clark Ridpath

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